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Raptors make history in a laugher over the Knicks

The far better team won easily, the Raptors got basically a night off for most of the starters – well, the fourth quarter off – and no one got hurt while a lot of folks probably had a lot of fun watching it.

Other than that? Not much.

The Knicks?

We had a legitimate discussion centred around this question:

“Would Terence Davis II be the second- or third-best player on the New York roster?”

Discuss.

And after you do that, read this because it’ll wrap up the game and it should be wrapped up quickly.

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THREE POINTERS

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History, folks. History

That’s what we saw for the last six minutes or so.

I thought it was and my buddy Brian Swane out in Alberta confirmed it ‘cause he’s a good dude; It was not only the first time four Canadians had been on the court at the same time in any NBA game ever, it was the first four had played in the same game at any point.

Watching Chris Boucher and Oshae Brissett play for the Raptors and RJ Barrett and Iggy Brazdeikis play for New York was pretty good – even if I was barely paying attention for the last 16 minutes or so.

But I need to say this:

The fact David Fizdale left the Knicks prized rookie and presumptive future corner piece Barrett on the court with his team down a hundred late in a road game and with Barrett having already missed the team’s last game may not in itself be a firing offence but it’s sure got to be a paragraph in the letter they give Fizdale when he’s inevitably let go.

I understand it’s not unusual for the Knicks to do that and I sorta get that you want rookies to play and learn but you want rookies to play and learn when games are actually being played at an NBA level and not in garbage time.

Toss in the illness angle and the fact they ran him out to 31 minutes in a game that was over after about 30 makes no sense to me.

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Up to old tricks

Was good to see the Raptors come out and stomp the Knicks to open the third quarter.

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And going Siakam three-pointer, OG three-pointer in the first 59 seconds was certainly the right way to go about it.

The thing that caught my eye was that the second three – OG from the corner right in front of the Knicks bench – was on a play that started with Marc Gasol closing out to block a Marcus Morris Sr, corner three.

Think about that: A 7-footer with, um, not the greatest foot speed, getting out on a corner shooter to block a shot and start a transition break.

Tells me two things: Gasol defensive work rate can be off the charts and corner 3s are going the way of the dodo bird because too many of them are now contested.

It’s Above The Break Or Nothing these days.

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Snuck by me

I think I might have been in the elevator going downstairs to dump my machine before the Nick chinwag so I missed it.

But when Malcolm Miller made a three with 70 seconds left to put Toronto up by 34 – see why I had bailed? – it tied a franchise record for made threes in a single game.

The record’s 21, it’s now been done twice, the last time being last March in a game against Miami, and for a team that I thought might struggle a bit to shoot from beyond the arc, this squad’s pretty darn good.

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Okay, a brutally busy day awaits so I’m gone.

Gonna take tomorrow morning off, too, I believe, because we’ll back with Three Pointers on Saturday after the Orlando game that we won’t be at and I need a morning of no work.

But if you want to get into the weekend mailbag, you still can. It’s askdoug@thestar.ca and it’s easy. Do it.

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